Over the years, network operators have deployed a significant amount of networking equipments in order to address an increasing array of data services, including videoconferencing, video streaming, online gaming, etc. In order to manage and process the exponential amount of data traffic generated by some of these new services, smart and more powerful networking equipments have been developed and gradually deployed in existing data networks.
However, from the point of view of network operators, replacing all the existing and already deployed networking equipments is prohibitively expensive. It is thus generally desired to extend as much as possible the life of legacy networking equipments remaining in data networks.
Still, maintaining legacy networking equipments is often difficult as most of these equipments are neither configured nor readily adapted to be upgraded to perform more advanced functions. Whether these legacy equipments are upgraded with new software or new hardware, they generally remain limited to the basic packet processing functions for which they were initially designed.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide devices and methods that obviate or mitigate the above described problems.